Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2008 June 29

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June 29

Pirated Software

Okay I have a couple of questions: How many people use pirated software/OS's? How many people actually get caught and prosecuted/punished for having pirated software or Operating Systems? What is their punishment? I realize that this is different everywhere, but I'm looking for info specific to the US, or if there is an interesting tidbit from another country please share. Thanks for the info. --71.98.13.102 (talk) 00:29, 29 June 2008 (UTC)

As far as I'm aware, it's extremely rare in most countries of the world, including the US, for a home user to be prosecuted or sued by the copyright owners simply for using copyrighted software. Even the recent P2P lawsuits have largely AFAIK originated from the RIAA or MPAA not the BSA or SPA and have in theory targeted those who are sharing (i.e. redistributing) media in violation of copyright. Businesses however are generally not so lucky. This is the case even in countries, e.g. Malaysia where piracy is ubiquitious and in countries, e.g. NZ where it is not so. Nil Einne (talk) 08:22, 29 June 2008 (UTC)

The other problem with businesses is that there are mechanisms out there for employees to report their employers, which makes it much more problematic (and gives big companies a lot more to lose than the average person). --98.217.8.46 (talk) 15:28, 29 June 2008 (UTC)

I've never heard of anybody being prosecuted or punished for having pirated an operating system. For software, it's still mostly with entertainment software, like video games. Mac Davis (talk) 19:29, 29 June 2008 (UTC)

I think I heard of a school in remote Russia which was brought to court for using a few unauthorized copies of an operating system. Kushal (talk) 16:08, 30 June 2008 (UTC)

You're asking some pretty broad questions, more information might help but could also land you in legal hot water obviously so I'll see what I can do. As far as how many people use it varies by OS and country, Mac is pirated by people wishing to avoid buying an expensive Mac computer, get it for free, or get it to work on alternate hardware (AMD processors, non-Intel things); windows AFAIK is pirated more in the third world and Asia, though this won't stop people in the US at all from doing the same. I have no idea about prosecution so I'm not much help there, punishment depends on the scale of use, commercial use, jurisdiction, etc, the US would probably be a good fine if I had to guess. Another issue you might run into is less the courts and more what your shiny new OS might come loaded with and technical means used to stop pirates. The first concern just gives you an infected computer that could be any number of things, the second would potentially break your computer or break updating it (I think Mac's won't boot and Windows varies from no boot to only security updates to no updates, depends on a lot of things). If your concern is cost however I'd like to show you Linux in my favorite flavor, it's free, legal, and IMHO better than anything else (more info at Kubuntu and Linux if you'd like) Ben (talk) 17:00, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

"Error ... [No Error]" when editing Wikipedia

When submitting changes to Wikipedia articles I am often getting an error message telling me to try again in a few minutes. The error description is "Error: ERR_ZERO_SIZE_OBJECT, errno [No Error]" which is contradictory. Is the Wikipedia hardware not coping? Nurg (talk) 06:28, 29 June 2008 (UTC)

That happens sometimes. The Wikimedia Foundation doesn't have a whole lot of funds, so things don't work right sometimes. Further than that, I have no idea. Useight (talk) 07:11, 29 June 2008 (UTC)

I don't know what the specific error is about, but in computers generally you can see "error: something went wrong (no error)" because there was an error in the application, but not in the operating system. See errno. --Sean 12:22, 29 June 2008 (UTC)

That is one specific possible cause, but in general an error routine is called which expects an error code to be set when it hasn't been. -- Q Chris (talk) 12:46, 30 June 2008 (UTC)

Longword parity protection

Am I correct in assuming that longword parity protection refers to each longword (32 bits) being protected by one parity bit? Rilak (talk) 12:15, 29 June 2008 (UTC)

Yes, that's the usual meaning of that term.

Atlant (talk) 16:58, 29 June 2008 (UTC)

Thanks! Rilak (talk) 06:12, 30 June 2008 (UTC)

xbox 360 mov

Can't get an xbox360 to play 'mov' files (or recognise them) - the article xbox 360 says ir recognises mov containers Xbox_360#Multimedia??87.102.86.73 (talk) 12:26, 29 June 2008 (UTC)

I'm sure someone in the know will correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think the article is talking about the QuickTime file format. Without knowing anything in particular about the 360, I will say it would strike me as strange for M$ to support any video files besides their own, especially those from Apple. You'll note that our article doesn't mention anything about AVI files, which would be the natural choice if the company was actually interested in giving people what they wanted. Matt Deres (talk) 14:47, 30 June 2008 (UTC)

Yeah M$ says they support those multimedia formats. But I have never gotten any other format other than .wav or .wmv to work on the 360. Although you can download from the Marketplace drivers that allow Apple's Ipod to work on the 360. That may be what they are refering to when they say the 360 can play .mov. Rgoodermote^{Not an admin}  21:06, 30 June 2008 (UTC)

I think the problem may be that .mov is a container format. The audio and video in a .mov can be encoded using one of a number of codecs. You likely need to find out what codecs are being used in your .mov files, and what codecs the Xbox 360 can play. --Bavi H (talk) 02:16, 1 July 2008 (UTC)

Apple has not written Quicktime for Xbox360. Try a more universal format, like h.264 .mp4 or .m4v. --70.167.58.6 (talk) 16:36, 1 July 2008 (UTC)

Knoppix console mode font

In console mode, Knoppix uses a high-resolution font that I would like to use with Debian and Ubuntu. Is there a package available that installs this font, or is it built into the Knoppix kernel? --NorwegianBlue ^talk 13:05, 29 June 2008 (UTC)

Looks like a standard console font, it's just using a higher resolution graphics mode. The screenshot is 1024x768, so I'm guessing that was the actual resolution you were seeing. In Debian, you can select a 1024x768 console using fbset or SVGATextMode, depending on which console driver is active. Try apt-get install fbset && fbset 1024x768-72 --tcsetattr (talk / contribs) 20:19, 29 June 2008 (UTC)

Thanks, of course you're right. I tried fbset, but after some googling found a better alternative: appending "vga=791" to the "kernel" line in grub's menu.lst:

kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.20-17-generic root=UUID=e9493e64-3e72-d48f-7a97-53595d353b94 ro quiet splash vga=791

Worked like a charm. --NorwegianBlue ^talk 21:03, 1 July 2008 (UTC)

filter for hypersensitive left mouse button

Hi all:

I am using a CAD$10 optical mouse and has been getting some CAD$10 performance (i.e. suboptimal) lately.

Specifically, when I single-click left mouse button, the circuitry actually emits TWO (2) left-click signals to my computer, so that my computer mistaken it for a double-click, and so I get all sorts of undesirable GUI behaviour, including surprise application launch/exit. This has gotten to be really really annoying lately.

Therefore, I am wondering if there is some kind of a software filter that I can install in Windows XP that will filter out the second left-click signal if two are received in rapid succession. The software should allow me to set a threshold value for the interval between two left-clicks so that if two left-clicks are timed in under the threshold, the second left-click signal is discarded.

Thanks.

76.65.15.166 (talk) 13:42, 29 June 2008 (UTC)

Not sure of any third party program that would filter that, but have you checked on the website of the mouse's brand? Such a problem makes me think that you wouldn't be the only one with the problem, and perhaps the company has created a program to filter it. Mastrchf (^t/_c) 14:16, 29 June 2008 (UTC)

Thanks. My mouse has the brand "Cenlix", and the website is listed as www.cenlix.com However, when I tried to go there all I get is something called the "smarter mail interface"...arrrgghhh... 76.65.15.166 (talk) 14:45, 29 June 2008 (UTC)

You've got a case of diminishing returns - which is going to be more cost effective? Spending ages trying to find a way round the issue or going and buying another $10 mouse to replace the faulty one? Exxolon (talk) 15:00, 29 June 2008 (UTC)

Perhaps this is too obvious, but Windows does have a mouse settings control panel applet that might help. --LarryMac | Talk 13:24, 30 June 2008 (UTC)

Urgent question about webcams / recording video with a USB cam!!

Say I have a USB webcam (a Logitech Orbit MP) and I want to record as high quality video (and audio) as I can from it, direct to the harddrive (no streaming), on an XP system. What program should I use? I need something free, reliable. Suggestions? (And I need to know, say, in the next hour or two!) --98.217.8.46 (talk) 16:37, 29 June 2008 (UTC)

My very crappy camera (Vivitar Vivicam) came with a program called PCCam. It can record depending on the hardware driver (and it works with other cameras). You could try googling that; maybe it's uploaded somewhere. iMovie on the Macintosh will do that, and I think Windows Media Player is supposed to, but never seems quite able. Would be worth a shot. JeremyMcCracken (talk) (contribs) 17:00, 29 June 2008 (UTC)

Yeah, I'm basically looking for something with iMovie's ability to just record. I'll see if the cam comes with any software -- unfortunately I won't have access to the camera until right before I'm supposed to set it up. (Sigh) --98.217.8.46 (talk) 17:17, 29 June 2008 (UTC)

iuVCR might work. It's designed for TV tuners but should work with a camera. JessicaN10248 19:09, 29 June 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for the suggestions! Actually the camera came with software that works fine. Whew! --98.217.8.46 (talk) 02:37, 30 June 2008 (UTC)

Games Creation

What program is best for beginners to use to get to grips with making simple games, like snake or tetris clones? I have python but have no idea how to use it. I was also wondering if there were any books or websites I could buy/visit respectively, that would explain the program and give examples.

Thanks 89.241.206.191 (talk) 20:35, 29 June 2008 (UTC)

Game Maker is quite good, download here JessicaN10248 20:40, 29 June 2008 (UTC)

If you're familiar with Java you can make some very basic programs to get the hang of making simple games. May I inquire what programming languages besides Python are you familiar with? --Proficient (talk) 09:58, 30 June 2008 (UTC)

Java makes graphics very easy and it's amongst the easiest to use of the C-like programming languages, while Python is one of the easiest ones to learn. So either choice would be good. Just google tutorials (Python's own tutorial is excellent for starting, not sure about Java tutorials). --Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 18:05, 30 June 2008 (UTC)

I'd consider it easier to make a game in Python than in Java, all else being equal. I'd try some of the resources at http://wiki.python.org/moin/BeginnersGuide/NonProgrammers for learning Python. Once you feel comfortable writing simple Python programs, try Pygame for making games with actual graphics and the like. Be aware that some of the beginner resources have specialized targets. For example, the historian guide tends to focus on things like file i/o and screen-scraping. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.184.223.246 (talk) 01:54, 1 July 2008 (UTC)

Thanks guys looks good, I will check these things out. 89.241.206.191 (talk) 18:30, 1 July 2008 (UTC)

Two network devices connected at the same time

How does windows handle a situation where two network connections are active at the same time (and both are to the internet, not to like local networks)? Like, if you have a wired ethernet connection and a wifi-connection, or a wifi-connection and a usb HSDPA-modem connected. Does the OS simply use one or the other, or does it do some clever sharing, so you can get the most out of both? Can you instruct one program to use one adapter, and another program to use the other? Does windows do this automatically? I guess you could configure the subnet-mask of both to divide the internet in half, but if windows (I'm talking about Vista, btw) does something like this automatically, that wouldn't be needed. --Oskar 20:50, 29 June 2008 (UTC)

I believe it only uses one. My neighbour was having trouble with his new wireless router once - turns out Vista would not connect to a wireless network (it gave a generic error) when it had an ethernet connection; when I disconnected the ethernet, Vista connected to the wifi fine. Xenon54 20:54, 29 June 2008 (UTC)

It will use the path where the default route points. It is also possible to set up the computer to route between the two networks, so that data that has to go from one network to the other is passed through the computer. This is probably not what you intended, so the default is off. Graeme Bartlett (talk) 03:48, 30 June 2008 (UTC)

There might be a way to route the connection through both for more bandwidth. I've heard of people using two modems on a two-line system to speed up dialup, back when broadband and DSL weren't so easy to come across. JeremyMcCracken (talk) (contribs) 21:39, 2 July 2008 (UTC)